On The Vine: Happy Pride!
Happy Pride, Kansas City!
After the last year in pandemic isolation, it feels like we are ready to burst forth and truly celebrate our resilience. As our communities begin to reopen and we step back out this June, it is important to pause and remember the contributions of queer people who helped us reach this point.
The LGBTQ liberation movement is rooted in acts of resistance. From the pioneering activists Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie and the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, to the many court cases that helped codify same-sex marriage as a legal right in the United States, the last 50 years have shown that the queer community is made up of strong, empathetic and resilient individuals who make their voices heard.
The pandemic has been isolating, but it has also offered us the time to reflect upon our own lives. Pride is so much more than rainbows and parades. It is not an exclusive celebration for people who are out and proud. Pride is a celebration of survival and the fight for equal rights. It is a time to honor and value yourself — in whatever way feels comfortable to you.
Trey generously asked me to curate this week’s newsletter. I am a new Kansas Citian, but working for The Star is a bit of a homecoming for me. As an intern in 2012, I wrote about same-sex couples living in Johnson County. Years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges, these couples were showing the world why Kansas City is a vibrant place to call home.
That story and so many that followed it have shaped my career. My goal as a journalist is to help the people in my community live smarter, healthier and more equitable lives. I am a listener. I am a sharer. I know I’m new here, which is why I would love to hear from you.
Drop me a line this week. A few ideas to get you started: Tell me more about why you’ve made Kansas City your home. What are you celebrating this Pride? What questions do you have about your community? What is a hidden gem that you think I should check out as the world reopens?
Around the block
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Katie Sowers, first woman to coach in Super Bowl, joins Kansas City Chiefs staff
“Retired from coaching in the NFL? Nah. Kansas City... I’m home!” Katie Sowers wrote on her Instagram last week. The 34-year-old a native of Hesston, Kansas, will join the Chiefs coaching staff as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship.
She is the first openly gay coach in the NFL and the first woman to coach in a Super Bowl. Sowers previously played with the Kansas City Titans in the Women’s Football Alliance before becoming the team’s general manager. Before joining the Chiefs, she spent four years with the San Francisco 49ers.
Seeing women rise to the top of their field is important. Especially in spaces like the NFL that have been dominated by cisgender, heteronormative definitions of who will succeed. While I’m not typically a professional football fan, I know I will be following Sowers’ career with the Chiefs this season.
Missouri report shows Black drivers more likely to be stopped
Black drivers were 23% more likely than white drivers to be pulled over by Kansas City police last year, according to the Missouri Vehicle Stops 2020 Annual Report, released by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. The same report found that in 2020 Black drivers were 71% more likely to be pulled over than white drivers, and 25% more likely to be arrested in Missouri.
The only thing shocking about these statistics is that they are an improvement (they also come in a pandemic year with 24% fewer traffic stops over all). In 2019, the same report found that Black drivers in Missouri were 95% more likely to be pulled over than white motorists. These troubling reports were part of why the NAACP issued a travel advisory in 2017 warning black motorists of the potential problems with traveling through Missouri.
“The NAACP is deeply concerned that even in a pandemic where large portions of the minority community were providing essential services, we were still pulled over at an incredibly high and disproportionate rate,” said Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP.
In case you missed it...
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Beyond the block
Ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s scholastic sports is now Florida’s law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill banning transgender females from participating in women’s and girls’ scholastic sports. The fact that he signed the bill on the first day of Pride Month did not go unnoticed.
Detractors of the ban, including equal rights advocates and many transgender people, have argued the bill is an effort to score political points by further alienating transgender people. Supporters of the effort to restrict transgender athlete participation have cited no examples of competitive issues in Florida.
The fight over the controversial Florida law is likely headed to court. Minutes after the bill was signed into law, the LGBTQ civil rights group the Human Rights Campaign announced its intention to sue the state.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a similar bill earlier this year.
Check this out...
Disney Creates a ‘Launchpad’ for Underrepresented Filmmakers
One year after #BlackoutTuesday, what have companies really done for racial justice?
For the culture
Go read a queer romance novel
99% Invisible, one of my favorite podcasts, spent this week’s episode doing a deep dive into the history of romance novel cover designs. You know the ones — Fabio’s muscled arms clutching a woman who appears to be yearning for more. These covers nearly always depicted white people in straight relationships. The genre’s early hits also often included depictions of sexual violence.
Not exactly the book I want to be reading in 2021.
But romance writers are queer! They are people of color! They are people with disabilities! And they are writing some of the absolute best books for readers looking for an escape that will absolutely have a happily ever after. (It is literally a defining characteristic of the romance genre.)
“Red, White and Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston, is a romantic romp of a book that got me through part of the last 15 months. Their new novel, “One Last Stop,” came out this week and I can’t wait to read it in a park.
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This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 10:18 AM.